Today's collision repair estimators utilize various estimating software applications to create detailed estimates of the total cost of the labor, parts and refinish necessary to repair a given vehicle. Use of these applications requires an in-depth knowledge of the structural detail, repair procedures and techniques specific to the year, make, model and other pertinent characteristics of the vehicle being repaired. Users of these applications must select or enter the specific types of parts needed in the application while understanding the repair procedures for each specific vehicle and type of damage. This complexity is compounded by the fact that vehicle manufacturers regularly change the component makeup and design of their vehicles, therefore requiring these estimators to possess up-to-date knowledge of each vehicle and the necessary procedures to repair them.
These existing estimating software applications require special skills, are tedious, error-prone and leave the accuracy of estimates at the discretion of the person who is assessing the damage and creating the estimate. The person creating an estimate has to use her discretion to evaluate each section of the vehicle, identify the parts that are damaged, decide whether the damaged parts should be replaced or repaired, and what additional operations need to be performed during the repair or replacement process. These processes often result in estimates that are inaccurate and have a large variance in their total values, depending on the skills and/or biases of the individuals who create them.
Depending on the level of expertise of the estimator and her propensity to select certain part-types over others or her decision to repair certain parts instead of replacing them, estimates generated by different estimators result in different repair procedures and total costs. Studies have shown that three estimators from the same company, with the same training, using the same estimating software can each produce estimates for the same damaged vehicle that result in up to 15% difference in their total values. These same studies demonstrate that estimators that use different estimating software applications and work in different businesses such as a collision shop versus an insurance company or an independent adjuster can create estimates that result in differences of up to 25% in the total value of their estimates.
Current estimating systems that are utilized to create estimates for collision repairs often produce varying and inaccurate total estimate costs. In fact, these companies state that their systems are to be used only as a “Guide.” Furthermore, the estimating process is time-consuming and expensive, as it is subjective and requires expertise on multiple levels. Given the tremendous amount of cost, training, time, special skills and knowledge that is required to effectively utilize today's estimating software applications, they are not effective for creating accurate repair estimates for a majority of vehicles that incur collision damage.
There is a need for a new system and method of estimating to estimate vehicle repair costs that is less complicated than the current systems and can produce estimates much faster without compromising accuracy. The new method should also be versatile enough to create estimates for vehicles of multiple years, makes, models and other characteristics without the need for the person creating these estimates to understand all the intricacies and peculiarities of each vehicle.
This new method should be able to factor out the variance of part prices, labor rate differences, and all other variances in order to produce an accurate estimate, as long as these differences can be objectively accounted for in the estimate being produced. Once the predictive analytics process is completed and the estimate is finalized, some or all of these factors can be presented in a simple form for users, insurance carrier staff, administrators, etc. to decide which ones should be applied to the estimate. An electronic procurement module, 113, that can effectively identify, source, price and procure all the parts necessary for a given repair and provide the means to determine the cost-effectiveness of each part for a given geographical location can aid in accomplishing the above tasks in real-time or near real-time.
The present invention represents such a new system and method.